Nestle, one of the biggest baby food and commercial food companies, has signed an agreement with four public-funded national universities in order to offer nutrition awareness programmes. As per sources, the programme is specially made for adolescent school-going girls in government-run village schools. The four universities include Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal (Haryana), University of Mysore in Karnataka and the GB Pant University for Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand).
As per sources, Nestle staff and the faculty of these universities have launched a nutrition education programme under the MoU. Further, sources informed that Minister of State for Rural Development Agatha Sangma along with Nestle India Chairman Helio Waszyk launched the joint initiative in April 2009.
As per sources, keeping a condition of the MoU in mind, PAU refused to provide information about the MoU and the details of the nutrition education programme. Himanshu Manglik, Communications Manager, Nestle, when approached, told the sources that the nutrition education programme was a very good one and that the company had nothing to hide and was willing to share the contents of the programme with anyone who was interested.
(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com)
